A Look At Our New Squad & Views On ‘Arry Redknapp…!

So, there we have it, our squad is nearing completion, and we’ve signing 2 central defenders this summer with Johan Djourou back to full fitness (well, kind of)… we’ve let the injured Eduardo go and brought in Maroune Chamakh as his replacement and in addition, we’ve promoted the likes of Jack Wilshere into the main squad as well as having a fit Kieran Gibbs back too. With Rosicky in blinding form, we’ve got a very good set of players who can all be effective in different ways.

With Denilson injured until now, and Song back in defence covering for the injured Djourou and the suspended Koscielny (which other player has previously got sent off on his competitive debut?)… Wilshere has played some part in both games this season and he has been very impressed for someone so young. Don’t forget the boy is only 18. He had his 8 minute cameo for England against Hungary and is now in the Under 21 squad for the Euro qualifying games. Like we did with Wilshere at Arsenal, gave him a taste of the Premiership and then loaned him out, it’s a similar exercise with the full team and then the under 21′s. I think he should be in the Under 21′s for now to gain that International experience.

Under 21 manager, Stuart Pearce commented on his demotion saying:

“Jack’s had the experience of an international cap with the seniors and his development will come. Like Theo Walcott, I think having the experience of playing with the Under-21s and seniors will be a help to him and is something he will have to come to terms with. He shouldn’t feel disappointed that he’s been in the senior squad and then come back to the Under-21s and that’s the mentality he has to come to the squad with.”

The key component for our squad now… as I’ve said yesterday and the day before and the day before and the day before… and the week before… is to secure the signing of a new keeper. For those of you who have played any footballing management games, if you try and sign a new player and constantly say it’s an area that you’re trying to improve, the existing player in that position oftens gets stroppy and performs badly and that is what we’re doing to Almunia. Considering he’s not world class, he is now mentally affected too – so if we don’t sign a new keeper, we’re going to have a very fragile confidence of a man in goal come next week.

There have been all sorts of rumours on Schwarzer, noise about him passing a medical, and then not passing a medical and then having problems with his knees, shoulder and back. He’s been left out of Fulham’s squad recently, so there may be something genuine happening there. The rumours were that paying upwards of £2m for him, but news coming out of the various sources in and around the club – is that Schwarzer had a clause in his contract for a CL club if one came along, that he would be able to move. Apparently, our original offer was < £1m, and we have offered the same in August as we had in May. Nothing has moved with him, and Fulham are reluctant to sell, so I hope we have a backup plan in mind!

Tonight, Young Boys take on Sp*rs at WHL and I have to say, wheeler dealer, ‘Arry Redknapp is really a waste of space. He is probably the most dodgiest manager in football, and really lucky with his appointments, and pretty random with his signings… but after signing Gallas, our former player, he’s been ranting and raving about how he’s got one up on us. Well, ‘Arry really shouldn’t be concentrating on Arsenal the day of his biggest game of his season. The twitchy individual said this:

“He knows he is going to get some flak from the Arsenal fans but his signing is one-up for us. Tottenham fans should be thinking, ‘Hang on, we have got one over on them here’.”

Well, ‘Arry, you have managed to sign a 33 year whinging old annoying player – good luck mate – with King, Dawson, Woodgate, Kaboul and Bassong, a sixth central defender is exactly what you needed and if this video is anything to go by, then he’ll fit in quite nicely. Paddy Power are offering 500/1 for Young Boys to beat Sp*rs 4-0… worth a punt? It looks like Sp*rs have employed Gallas to try and lure Sagna to WHL in the year 2018, doing the ground work now over dinner…. okay maybe, they’re just having dinner… but funny how this makes news…

@ devday
which other player has previously got sent off on his competitive debut?

Joe cole did the same at the same match… funny

theusualsuspect

So details concerning Wenger’s contract extension have emerged and it appears that he is no longer on £5million a year, they have given him a 20% salary increase up to £6million a year. Can you believe this? So Wenger’s 6 years of failure warrants a 20% salary increase making him the highest paid employee at the club. How in Gods name does anyone manage to secure that sort of salary increase when they have failed, it can’t be performance related can it? If I had failed in my job in the way Wenger has during the period of his last contract I would have been shown the door not given a £1million salary increase. No wonder he doesn’t want to spend any money on real players, he’s making sure they have enough money for his next contract extension. No wonder he signed the blinking thing so quickly. It’s money for old rope, he must be laughing his socks off, he doesn’t have to win anything, there is no pressure and he gets £6MILLION per year. Incredible!! ps Jose is entertaining but what part of his coment was wrong, we have used the “youth” excuse the last five years.

will

Squillaci was 30 on August 11th. Pires was 33 when he turned down a 1 year contract. Gallas was 33 when he turned down a 1 year contract. Squillaci will be 33 when his contract ends. I would imagine he would only be offered a 1 year deal as well. This deal is entirely consistent with everything else AW has done. Last year Liverpool W13 D3 L3 at home, W5 D6 L8 away from home. Liverpool are far different creatures at home and away and far different creatures with and without Javier Maschereno. Sorry if you are so blinded with prejudice if you cannot see that. Jose Mourinho has always been obsessed by Arsenal, ever since his Chelsea days. He could not stand Arsenal. We could have Casillas in goal, Ronaldo and Messi on the wings, Drogba and Rooney up front, Essien and Xavi in midfield and his own favorite Carvalho in defense and he would still say we stood no chance at winning. If he mentioned Arsenal as a possible title contender I would be worried he was losing his sanity. Jose is entertainment. Dont take his words too seriously.

Pete

@ theusualsuspect:

Perhaps overseeing the building of a new stadium and training ground, as well as keeping the club financially healthy has something to do with it.

He deserves to be well paid as far as I’m concerned. The only current manager in the Prem to win more trophies than him is Fergie. Plus, seeing as this could well be his last contract with Arsenal, his loyalty and doing his job well deserves to be rewarded. Dont think its fair of you to suggest he’s greedy, because if that was the case then why hasn’t been on that kind of money in his 14 years at the club so far? If it was about money he could have walked away when we had little finances at the club, and managed Real Madrid when he was offered the job.

The only manager thats served a club longer than Wenger is Fergie, and you can argue that the Arsenal gaffer has done a better all round job for our club than the Scottsman has for United, and not just risked everything, livelihoods and bankrupsy, for the sake of filling the trophy cabinet.

Mourinho, Ancelotti, Benitez, Hiddink, Mancini have all been paid much more at various times, yet they haven’t served their respective clubs nearly as well. Also, as good as the managers mentioned above are, none of them could do what Wenger has done with the comparatively little money he had to work with. Can you imagine Mourinho working within buget contraits? Wouldn’t happen because he cant do it.

Also, there’s not many other managers would have discovered players like Cesc, Viera, Henry, Kolo, RvP, and many more when Wenger did until much later in the players careers.

Berth

We should take his words seriously. His got a point, a very good one. @ WIll.

@ theusualsuspect – I understand the tune of your writing, but you should understand the club and shareholders are making real money season after season and guess what the fans have been invited to join in the sharing of the profit; at least someone up there isn’t that selfish. The only worry is your emotions getting messed up.

Berth

@ Pete :
“Also, there’s not many other managers would have discovered players like Cesc, Viera, Henry, Kolo, RvP, and many more when Wenger did until much later in the players careers” – probably that is the origin of his obsession which has clouded his reasoning for considerable number of years. At least am glad his come back to his normal self.

Pete

@ Berth:

But that just strengthens the point I made. We wouldn’t have been able to afford any of those players at the height of their careers. The fact that Arsene got them to the club in the first place, and on the cheap, shows how good he is. If we’d had Mourinho or any other manager in charge we wouldn’t have been able to bring them because the money wasn’t there and Arsenal would have been worse off as a club and lower down the table than we have been for the past 5 years. Not only have we stayed at the top end of the table, we’ve also come close to winning competitions while being limited with buget constraints. It wasn’t just monetary contraints in transfer funds, but capping the pay for players, staff and MANAGER! Wenger wasnt getting a big fat pay cut whilest players were earning less money than they’d get elsewhere.

Also, you have to consider the fact that we’re actually one of the best prepared clubs, you could argue probably the best in the Prem, when it comes to the new 25 man squad rule and the Home Grown/non Home Grown quota.

Not sure people realise we’ve actually got more home grown players than Chelsea. We have 7 in Nicklas Bendtner, Gael Clichy, Denilson, Johan Djourou, Cesc Fabregas, Vito Mannone, Alex Song. Chelsea have 5 in Ashley Cole, Frank Lampard, Michael Mancienne, John Terry, Ross Turnbull. That didn’t happen overnight, its been built over the last 5 seasons. We may not have spent as much money as a lot of other clubs but we’ve invested much more time and effort in who we’ve brought in.

Sam

Arsene has every right to be compensated for the good job he’s doing for Arsenal and it’s ridiculous to suggest he’s greedy!

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